Scholarships and Stipends

What is the Scholarships and Stipends scheme?

Scholarships and Stipends is a financial support scheme of the Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department, Government of Gujarat, implemented by the Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG). The scheme pays a small annual amount to sportspersons from the state who have competed at national level. A larger amount to those who came back with a medal, a smaller one to those who took part without winning.

The scheme's logic is about the middle of the pyramid rather than the top. An athlete who wins an Olympic or Asian Games medal is looked after by cash awards, jobs and national schemes. An athlete who has just qualified for and competed at a national championship is in a much more precarious position: still training full time, still buying kit and paying for travel, and usually with no sponsor at all. Scholarships and Stipends is aimed squarely at that group, and the design choice that defines it is that participation alone is enough to draw money. A player who reached the national championship and lost in the first round still gets Rs 2,000.

Key features

• Run by the Sports Authority of Gujarat, Gandhinagar.
• Rs 2,500 scholarship for a player who has won a medal at national level.
• Rs 2,000 stipend for a player who has participated at national level, irrespective of result.
• Applied online after player registration on the SAG portal.
• Amounts are paid per player, into the player's own bank account.

How much does the scheme pay?

The gap between the two; Rs 500 to is deliberately narrow. The Sports Authority of Gujarat is not trying to make the medal the point; it is trying to keep a whole cohort of national-level competitors in the system. A player who is not supported at all between the ages of 17 and 21 usually stops competing, and the state loses the return on everything already spent on that athlete's coaching and district-level competition.

These are modest sums and should be understood as a supplement, not a living wage. The Sports Authority of Gujarat runs a separate set of larger schemes alongside this one, financial aid for international competition, pension for retired athletes, and the state sports awards under the Eklavya, Sardar Patel and Jaidipsinhji names, and an athlete who qualifies for one of those should apply there too rather than treating this scheme as the ceiling.

Who is eligible for the sports scholarship and stipend?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Gujarat.
• You have participated in a national-level sports event, which is the threshold for the Rs 2,000 stipend.
• You have won a medal at national level, which is the additional condition for the Rs 2,500 scholarship.
• You can produce the participation or medal certificate issued by the recognised federation or association for that event.
• You are registered as a Player on the Sports Authority of Gujarat portal.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not a resident of Gujarat.
• Your best performance is at district or state level only, a state medal does not qualify for either the scholarship or the stipend under this scheme, so such an applicant is not eligible here.
• You cannot produce a certificate from the recognised federation for the national event you claim to have entered.
• Your event was not a recognised national-level competition. Open invitational meets and privately organised tournaments described as "national" are frequently rejected on this ground.

The eligibility published on the scheme record additionally states that the applicant should be male. In practice Gujarat runs parallel windows for women athletes rather than excluding them from sports support, so a woman player should check the current scheme list on the Sports Authority of Gujarat portal rather than concluding she has no route. This is one detail worth confirming directly with SAG before you spend time on paperwork.

What documents are required?

Scan certificates at full page and in colour. A participation certificate photographed at an angle, with the federation's seal cut off, is the single most common reason a sports application is sent back for resubmission.

How to apply for the Scholarships and Stipends scheme

1. Open the Sports Authority of Gujarat homepage at sportsauthority.gujarat.gov.in.
2. Click the Registration button on the upper right of the page.
3. Fill in all the details on the registration form — personal particulars, discipline, district and contact details, and submit it.
4. Check the email address you registered with; the login credentials are sent there.
5. Return to the portal, select Player as the user type and log in with those credentials.
6. Click the scheme name, Scholarships and Stipends: from the list shown to a logged-in player.
7. Complete the application, upload your participation or medal certificate, residence proof, Aadhaar and bank details, and submit.
8. Keep the application reference shown on submission; you will need it for any follow-up with SAG.

How to apply if you do not have a computer

Scholarships and Stipends is applied for through the SAG portal, so some digital access is unavoidable. Three practical routes exist for a player without a computer at home.

1. Ask your district sports officer at the Khel Gujarat district centre to help you register and file.
2. Ask your coach or the school or college sports teacher, who will usually have handled the same form for previous players.
3. Use a Common Service Centre to register and to scan your certificates cleanly.

How to check your application and payment status

1. Log in to sportsauthority.gujarat.gov.in as a Player with the credentials emailed to you.
2. Open the scheme from your dashboard to see whether the application is submitted, under scrutiny, approved or returned.
3. If it has been returned for correction, fix the specific document named and resubmit rather than filing a fresh application.
4. For payment, check the bank account you entered on the form. If an approved claim has not been credited, contact SAG with your application reference.

Why sports scholarship applications get rejected

• Event not recognised as a national-level competition by the relevant federation.
• Certificate uploaded is illegible or has the seal or signature cropped out.
• Medal claimed but no medal certificate attached, which usually converts a Rs 2,500 claim into a Rs 2,000 one at best.
• Residence proof for Gujarat missing, so state eligibility cannot be established.
• Bank account name mismatch between the passbook and Aadhaar, which stops the transfer after approval.
• Registered email inaccessible, so the login credentials never reach the player and the application is never completed.

Where to get help

• Sports Authority of Gujarat, Administrative Building, Sector 13-B, near Kh-3 Circle, Gandhinagar 382016.
• Office of the Director General, SAG to 079-23263650, dg-sag@gujarat.gov.in.
• Office of the Secretary, SAG to 079-23263651, sec-sag@gujarat.gov.in.
• District sports officer at your nearest Khel Gujarat district centre, for help with registration, certificates and follow-up.
• Mari Yojana (mariyojana.gujarat.gov.in), the state's citizen scheme directory, where this scheme is listed as scheme number 557.

The Rs 2,500 and Rs 2,000 figures are what the state currently publishes for this scheme. Sports support rates in Gujarat are revised by government resolution from time to time, so read the scheme text on the Sports Authority of Gujarat portal for the current cycle before you rely on any figure quoted elsewhere.